2 Arrested On Drug Charges

In unrelated but remarkably similar incidents, two women were arrested Thursday on charges of smuggling drugs to their boyfriends in two different state prisons.

The first case involved a Hartford woman whose stash of heroin almost killed a Connecticut Correctional Institution prisoner, police said.

The other woman was nabbed when correction officials translated a coded letter from her inmate boyfriend. The letter included explicit instructions on how and when to bring marijuana into a Cheshire prison, officials said.

Trooper Henry Arroyo, the lead investigator on both cases, served Maribel Santiago with an arrest warrant at her Hartford home, 92 Hampton St. She was charged with six offenses, including possession and distribution.

Last fall, Santiago passed the drugs to her boyfriend during a visit to the Cheshire prison, Arroyo said. Her boyfriend, whom police have not identified but plan to arrest, allegedly gave some to another prisoner, John Cipolla.

A few hours after the visit, prison guards found an unconscious Cipolla, 32, in his cell. Doctors later revived him and said he had overdosed on heroin.

An investigation led police to Santiago. Arroyo said Cipolla, who is serving a 12-year sentence for arson, will be served his arrest warrant today.

The second woman, Brenda Cook, 37, of Ludlow St., Stamford, was following the instructions of her boyfriend, police said, when she took marijuana into Cheshire's Webster Correctional Institution last summer.

Prison guards found a key to a written code in her boyfriend's cell and used it to translate a letter meant for Cook.

When Cook next visited, police searched her and found the drugs. A subsequent investigation led to Thursday's warrant arrest in Stamford. She now faces three charges, including conspiracy to convey.

Both women were held on $10,000 bonds in a New Haven detention center Thursday and are expected to be arraigned in Meriden Superior Court today.